The Power of Language
Experience for Cross-Cultural
Reading and Writing
David Landis, Joanne Umolu, Sunday Mancha
“The Language Experience Approach can create opportunities for
learning that bridge different languages,
cultural expectations, and values about diverse events and life
experiences.”
from The Reading Teacher 63(7), 2010
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
Instructional Approach
In this study, the team
 worked together with a group of primary-grade
teachers to provide suitable texts for their
classroom lessons by transcribing stories they
told
 assisted junior secondary students with special
needs by listening to them tell about important
events in their lives and recasting their stories in
the form of news bulletins
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
Research Questions
 How can the diverse interests of students be
satisfied in classroom reading and writing
lessons?
 How can reading and writing instruction be
adapted to promote more favorable education
for students from different cultural backgrounds
and life experiences?
 How could a reading curriculum be organized
differently to build on students’ diverse language
and life experiences and address topics that are
mandated by educational standards and school
curriculum plans?
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
Definition of LEA
Language Experience Approach (LEA)
 incorporates students’ retellings of home
and community events to create reading
materials for instructional purposes;
 focuses on students’ descriptions of their
life experiences and written transcriptions
about these events for use in reading and
writing instruction.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
Precursor of LEA: Pestalozzi
(Europe)
Swiss educator Johann Pestalozzi (1746–1827)
 Favored object teaching, which uses students’ understandings and
experiences as sources of knowledge rather than memorizing facts and
principles.
 Was interested in providing opportunities for students who struggled with
school reading and writing, especially students who had little or no
access to education because their families could not afford to pay for it.
 Arranged “field trips” to observe and experience the aspects and
characteristics of everyday objects.
 Students, for example, would investigate an object such as a wooden
post and discuss how to describe some traits associated with it, such as
color, texture, substance, height, and width.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
Precursor of LEA: John Frost
(America)
John Frost (1800–1859)
 incorporated Pestalozzi’s teaching practices into
illustrated composition books in which students
wrote objects’ descriptions or narrative accounts
of personal experiences related to the
illustrations.
 Frost’s (1839) Easy Exercises in Composition:
Designed for the Use of Beginners contained
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
Precursor of LEA: John Frost
Students were invited
 to describe the simple objects, places, and
scenes of their lives; to write about farming and
fishing and manufacturing and shop keeping;
 to recount their own experiences of friends,
family, school holidays, and reading and writing.
 to give their point of view in this writing, that is,
they were asked to give their thoughts on a
subject.
(Schultz, 1999, p. 158)
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
LEA in the 60’s and 70’s
 U.S. educators’ interest in language experience rose
significantly by the 1960s and 1970s, and more
research reviews were published about language
experience teaching practices.
 An increasing number of doctoral dissertations
investigated and discussed applications of language
experience in elementary and secondary classrooms as
well as postsecondary vocational education settings.
 Interest and research about language experience
increased so rapidly that this approach to teaching
reading and writing became the focus of IRA’s first
special interest group in 1969 (Hall, 1978; Stauffer, 1980
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
LEA L2 Learners
 We view LEA as appropriate for cross-cultural reading
instruction in multilanguage settings where students’
differing values, beliefs, and ways of living are brought
into contact.
 We use the term cultural to refer to habits of using time,
space, and language; modes of dress; and routine ways
of participating in formal and informal events in work
and play settings and societal institutions, as well as in
family and community social roles and activities.
 Cross-cultural means looking at these ways of life from
the perspectives of members of a cultural group, as well
as from the perspectives of those outside the group.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
LEA L2 Learners
 LEA provides opportunities for students
from diverse backgrounds to build
vocabulary and spelling proficiency,
participate in phonics analysis, develop
reading comprehension, foster creative
writing, and make connections between
reading and writing, along with other
educational benefits.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
The LEA Workshop in Nigeria
 The focus of this workshop was to develop
bilingual Hausa–English narratives and
informational texts for students in grades 4–6
who are beginning to read English.
 In our roles as volunteer consultants and
trainers, we were invited by IRA to work with the
Sabon Gari local education officials and local
university teacher education faculty members to
plan and prepare materials for the workshop.
 We facilitated activities during the workshop and
also assisted teachers as they applied ideas
from the workshop in their classrooms.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
“News on the Board”
for L2 Learning Disabled Children
 A classroom-based adaptation of LEA which
draws on the experiences and spoken language
of students as they dictate their news to the
teacher, who transcribes what students say in
the form of news bulletins.
 Procedures
Ss’ news report
T transcription of the news
 Read-alouds of news report
 Vocabulary matching and collection
 Storybook making
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
LEA: Criticisms and Responses
Criticism #1:
 Educators believe that routine use of language
experience inhibits readers from developing a range of
interests and familiarity with a variety of narrative and
informational materials (Spache & Spache, 1977).
Response:
 Teachers using an LEA have been able to create many
different types of written materials, including stories and
interviews about various events, scripts, recipes, charts,
lists for planning future activities, drawing and labeling
of maps and diagrams, directions for repairing and
making things, and other types of written, audio, and
visual texts.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
LEA: Criticisms and Responses
Criticism #2:
 LEA lacks sufficient published materials to provide
enough structure and organization for lessons, curricular
guides, or assessments accompanying the approach.
Response:
 There have been published materials that provided
guidance in planning, record keeping, and student
progress evaluation.
 Materials and suggestions about ways to incorporate
language experience into lessons and evaluation
activities have been developed.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA
LEA: Criticisms and Responses
Criticism #3:
 “Language experience is not an easy way to teach reading. It
demands flexibility in classroom management, recognition of
individual differences in language development, personalized
record keeping and teacher skill in...evaluation. Children
must be helped to acquire the ability to work independently
and cooperatively in small groups in this method, too.
(Spache & Spache,1977, p. 135)
Response:
 Although LEA has been criticized for requiring too much
flexibility, we find that teachers also recognize that LEA
actually helps students gain valuable experience with
reading and writing from multiple vantage points and
perspectives within and outside of stories.
Landis et al. 2010. the power of LEA